Jumping Journal: October 05, 2007

Summer ski jumping in October...hold it that doesn't sound right.  I thought it was suppose to be fall ski jumping in October.  The past few weeks have been way above normal for temperatures and way below normal for rainfall.  September was 5.5 degrees F above normal for the daytime high.  So far October has been the same way.  Maybe next week fall will arrive.  Then again I can wait.

 

I arrived at Storrs Hill on this unseasonably warm Thursday evening, high around 80 when the normal high is about 61, to find Cannonball and one of the kids there almost ready to jump.

 

I quickly suited up and headed on up the hill as I knew I wanted to get my jumps in pretty quick as I had other things that I was wanting to do before I headed to bed tonight, still have them to do actually but I wanted to get the journal updated before I didn't get the chance.

 

I soaped up for the first jump and it went pretty decent.  For the first jump of the evening it was actually quite a nice jump to say the least.  It does seem like I'm having a much easier time this year not having to start over from scratch each and every time I jump.  At least I'm not having to go all the way back to what seems like the beginning and progress forward from there.

 

The second jump wasn't quite as good as the first jump but it was still on the right track.  I did have trouble on the second jump on the inrun.  I didn't get set as quickly in my inrun position as what I should have so I ended up wobbling my way down the plastic covered inrun.  I think having soap on the inrun from my first jump helped to make things a little slicker and more prone to being able to get started bad but I wouldn't intentionally miss out on soaping the skis, not any more.

 

The third and fourth jump was about like the second jump.  The inrun did go a little better/smoother.

 

It was getting quite dark by the time I took the fifth jump but with the lights on I could still see pretty good through the orange tinted goggles that I wear.  Before I started down the inrun I decided to play the I WILL game once again.  I said to myself "I will drive through the heel and jump on time".  Sure enough on the final jump I did notice/feel the difference at the takeoff.  The distance also showed it as I think it ended up being the longest jump so far of the summer at Lebanon.  I would say that it was down around 18.5-19 meters.  Definitely it was on the ground before the blue line at 20 meters.

 

Crash